Skip to main content
Logo image

Sound Writing

Cody Chun, Kieran O’Neil, Kylie Young, Julie Nelson Christoph

Subsection 10.1.5 To Send or not to Send

A large portion of the communication that you have with professors will be over email, which means that knowing how to write emails to professors is useful as a skill in itself and is transferable to talking with professors in-person. This section addresses emailing professors, but you can learn more about email etiquette in general by reading Section 11.1.
List 10.1.6. Strategies for Sending Professors Effective Emails
  • Don’t be too casual until you know that it’s okay to be casual.
    “Not being casual” means using a professor’s name rather than starting with “Hey” and generally trying to spell words correctly and use full sentences.
  • Be clear and brief.
    Nobody wants to read long, confusing emails (or anything else that’s long and confusing).
  • Don’t ask the professor to do more work in responding than you’ve already done to send the email.
  • Use your university email address.

Problem 10.1.7. What’s Wrong with this Email?

Can you figure find all the reasons you would not want to send this email to a professor?
Hey, Sorry I missed the exam review yesterday. It’s been a super busy week and I had to finish a paper for another class. I’m worried about the test tomorrow because you gave me a bad grade on the last one, and I want to know what I can do to do better this time. Did you post any notes from the review session on Moodle? Can we meet tomorrow before the test to go over the material?
Solution.
This image shows a screenshot of an email with the text above, with the following annotations. The greeting "HEy" has this correction: "Some professors are okay with being addressed with ’hey,’ but some are not. It’s better to use ’Hi Professor Lastname’ until you know how they like to be addressed. Pro-tip: look at how the professor ends their emails--they’ll probably be fine being addressed however they sign off." The text "super busy week" has this annotation: "Your professor probably did too--most weeks are busy!" The text "finish a paper for another class" is annotated "This sends the message that another class is more important than the class that the professor you’re emailing teaches! It might be, but it’s not a nice thing to say to the professor." The text "you gave me a bad grade" has this annotation: "Don’t blame the professor for your grade. If you think it was unfair, explain why specifically, don’t bring it up tangentially." The text "Did you post any notes" is annotated with "This is something you can--and should--figure out yourself. That’s why they use services like Moodle!" The text "Can we meet tomorrow before the test" has this annotation: "When tomorrow? This is probably too soon for a busy professor to be able to help, but it also doesn’t tell the professor when you want to meet." Finally, the following annotation has arrows pointing to the lack of sign-off and the fact that the email is written in Gmail: "If you don’t use your UPS email address, professors may not be sure who you are--especially if you don’t sign off. Professors will also try to contact you via your UPS email, so it’s worth getting used to using your school email for school stuff."
Professors have different preferences and policies on what they consider respectful or acceptable communication, and often, it’s easy to be familiar or informal with university professors because they are approachable, kind, and often genuinely interested in knowing and talking with their students. Depending on the professor, being addressed informally or having a student ask them for an exception to a rule might not bother them at all; however, they’re also professionals, which means that even if they are annoyed, they might not tell you. Nevertheless, if a student does something that they perceive as disrespectful many times, intentionally or otherwise, they may start to associate the student with negative interactions, which isn’t good for anyone!
<Prev^TopNext>